Unlike those from the village, the people here were kind. They fed me, gave me clothes, and allowed me to play with their children. They were not afraid of me as the ᛒᛚᚨᚲᚲᛋᛗᛁᛏᚺ’s children had been. It was strange.

I slept in a different bed each night, never choosing one particular bed in the longhouse. But the night the Medicine Man spotted me wandering in the woods was when my ᛚᛁᚠᛖ when the natives began to change. He knew what I was. He wasn’t afraid. Rather, he was elated by his discovery.

That morning, he pulled me into his home. “You are a ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏ walker.”

Being that his English was better than the rest of the tribe, it was easy to understand his meaning. But fearing discovery, I merely stared at him. “A what?” I asked.

He grabbed my arm to sit me down in front of him. “You walk with the ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ at night. You visit them freely with the ᚲᚱᛖᚨᛏᚢᚱᛖᛋ of the ᛞᚨᚱᚲ.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said as my body stiffened.

His hand reached for my cheek. “No ᚠᛖᚨᚱ, child. It is not shamed here. Catori is the same.”

As he said her name, the same woman who had helped me clean up the first night I was here walked in, smiling. She sat next to me but continued to watch the Medicine Man. He continued. “She will teach you what it means to be a ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏ walker. To understand the balance.”

She glanced down at me, giving me another warm smile. “Tonight. We walk in the Land of the ᛞᛖᚨᛞ together.”

My eyebrows furrowed. She had only said one word of English the night we met. I assumed she couldn’t speak English like the rest. When the Medicine Man saw the confusion in my features, he nodded. “She has been learning English from me for a while. She will be a good teacher for you.”

That night, I fell asleep next to his bedroll. He instructed me to wait for Catori to find me before wandering on my own. But I didn’t listen. Instead, I chose to run. I ran through the woods under the full ᛗᛟᛟᛝ, searching for my prey.

I hadn’t run far before I found the source of them. In the corner of my eyes, I caught a glimpse of something moving from the trees. Carefully walking towards the movement, there was what looked to be a small opened door within a large white oak tree. Demons surrounded the door, some dancing, while other flew off in different directions to places unknown.

Enraged by their behavior, I allowed my power free. All I could hear were their screams. The ball of fire erupted, causing every dancing demon to burst into flames. Some screeched as they fled back into the open door, while others flew off, leaving only their cries.

“No!” A voice yelled from behind.

Catori appeared next to me, waving her arms into the air. As she did, the air suddenly began to liquefy, creating a wall of water she aimed at the demons. The ones that had stayed were cleansed of my ᚠᛁᚱᛖ and fled into the door before it slammed shut behind them.

I turn towards her. “What have you done?”

“The ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ are not to be harmed. Why?” She said as she turned to face me.

My brows furrowed as my lips began to pout, “They’re evil. They were killing people in my village. I saw it!”

Bending down to my level, she held my face. “ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ do not cause ᛞᛖᚨᛏᚺ. They ᛗᚨᚱᚲ those who are about to ᛞᛁᛖ. To free their ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ.”

“What?” I asked in disgust.

Her grip tightened as she moved to hold my shoulders, “The ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ are things we do not understand. But they are not the reason people ᛞᛁᛖ. They are not evil. Good. Come, I teach you.”

She took my hand to pull me away from the door as she began to lecture me of the ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ within the Land of the ᛞᛖᚨᛞ. I listened. She listened to my questions. The question of their appearance, of the ᛗᚨᚱᚲᛋ, everything. Her answers were vague. But I foolishly listened.

That morning, she took me to the Medicine Man to report on the night before. When he learned what I had done, his eyes watched me with ᛈᛁᛏᛇ. “The ways of your people have misguided you. You did not have a teacher when you were blessed with your gift. But now, Catori will help you understand the truth.”

Every night, she would take me to different doorways throughout the forest. We even found a doorway that was far more beautiful than the demon door. She pointed to it. “Do not go near those. They are false. Not evil, but tricksters. Beware of the beautiful ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ.”

The ᛝᛁᚷᚺᛏ of the new ᛗᛟᛟᛝ was the first time I witnessed their beauty. I waited by their doorway without Catori one evening, wanting to witness these new ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ. When the silver door began to creak open, ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ shot from the door so quickly, I couldn’t get a good look at them.

Holding my fist up, I lit my hand on ᚠᛁᚱᛖ as a torch when I inched closer to get a better look. The door itself was of a silver metal with leaves etched all around. When I held my fist closer towards the door, a ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏ stuck it’s head out. It was a small, thin creature with a white body and wings of different varieties. The eyes were catlike, but white as well.

It glared at me before it became memorized by my ᚠᛁᚱᛖ. As it reached to touch it, I jerked my hand away. With unbelievable speed, it moved to grab my hand and hold it up again. The ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏ moved to stand on my fist. Causing me to flinch, it made a screeching sound as it ᛒᚢᚱᛝᛖᛞ. But it wasn’t disappearing. It was dancing.

A presence behind me caused the ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏ to stop and wailed a cry that was painful to hear. As if the fire was it’s own, it grabbed a ball of the flames, hurling at whoever was standing behind me.

Hunched onto the ground, she began to sit up, slowly releasing her face. Where her left eye had been was now black, and ᛞᚢᚱᛝᛖᛞ. Her voice was shaking when she answered. “Do not go near them.”

Because we were both ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏᛋ, I assumed once we woke, everything would be fine. Her eye returned, and my hand no longer scratched. I was wrong. I awoke to the sound of Catori screaming at the other end of the longhouse. Quickly getting dressed, I ran and made my way to where she slept. The Medicine Man was hovering over her.

I squeezed through her family, to stand at her feet. When he saw me, he quickly demanded an answer. “What happened?”

At a loss for words, I only shrugged. The Medicine Man narrowed his eyes as he evaluated me. He removed the bandages from Catori’s face. The left side of her face was deep red and black. She had been badly burned. When she opened her eyes, the left eye was only white. The eye was blinded.

Suddenly, I felt a cold sting at my hand. Lifting it, the same scratch marks the spirit had made while in the Land of the ᛞᛖᚨᛞ were still there.